Private lives: home and family in the art of the Nabis, Paris, 1889-1900

Abstract

In 1889, avant-garde artists in Paris formed a brotherhood to promote a radical new direction in art. Adopting the name Nabis-Hebrew for "prophets"-they aimed to capture subjective experience and emotion in their paintings, prints, and drawings. This volume focuses on intimate views of home and family by four Nabi artists: Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947), Maurice Denis (1870-1943), Felix Vallotton (1865-1925), and Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940). For Bonnard and Denis, this arena was ideal for depicting small pleasures and modest acts of life; Vallotton and Vuillard, however, hinted at the tensions simmering just below the surface. This gorgeous catalogue is the first to delve deeply into the Nabis' use of domestic life as the locus for artistic inspiration.

Contents

Directors' foreword / William M. Griswold and Brian J. Ferriso -- Introducing the Nabis / Heather Lemonedes Brown -- Intimism and the "daily tragedy and mystery of ordinary existence" / Mary Weaver Chapin -- Interior dramas / Mary Weaver Chapin -- The gender politics of the Nabis / Francesca Berry -- Family life / Mary Weaver Chapin -- Home and family through the camera / Saskia Ooms -- Music chez soi / Mary Weaver Chapin -- Music at home in the Belle Époque / Francesca Brittan -- In the garden / Heather Lemonedes Brown -- Pets and family life in nineteenth-century France / Kathleen Kete -- The Nabi city / Heather Lemonedes Brown.